Exa vs SerpApi
A side-by-side look at 2 AI & ML tools for 2026 — the verdict, pricing, ratings, features, and what readers think.
exa.ai
Best for Developers building AI agents and coding assistants that need fast, citable web retrieval.
A web search API built for AI agents: fast, accurate retrieval with token-efficient page contents and deep research in one endpoint.
Visit Exa
serpapi.com
Best for Developers and SEO teams that need structured Google and search-engine results through a stable API.
A real-time Google Search API that handles proxies and CAPTCHAs and returns structured results.
Visit SerpApiPricing compared
Exa
$4/1k requests
SerpApi
$25/mo
Head to head
| Exa | SerpApi | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $4/1k requests | $25/mo |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Free plan: $10 credits monthly plus $10 bonus, no card | Free plan with 250 searches per month |
| Platforms | Web · API | API · Web |
| HQ | San Francisco, USA | — |
Pros & cons
Exa
Pros
- Purpose-built for agents: returns clean contents and token-efficient highlights instead of raw HTML.
- Configurable latency, from sub-second Instant search to multi-step Deep search, in one API.
- Vertical indexes for companies, people, news, research papers and code make enrichment and coding use cases easy.
- Free starter credits with no card required make evaluation cheap.
- Official MCP server, Claude connector and ChatGPT plugin speed up integration.
- Lists SOC 2 Type II, GDPR and CCPA coverage, with zero data retention available for enterprise.
Cons
- Usage-based pricing across several endpoints (search, contents, deep search, agent) takes effort to forecast.
- Aimed at developers; there is no no-code interface for non-technical teams.
- Deep search and Agent runs cost far more per request than Instant search.
- Higher rate limits, zero data retention and HIPAA require an enterprise contract.
SerpApi
Pros
- Handles proxies, CAPTCHAs and parsing so you do not run that infrastructure.
- Structured data for organic, Maps, Local, Shopping and Knowledge Graph results.
- Location parameter returns results as users in specific places see them.
- Only successful searches count toward your plan.
- Month-to-month plans with a free tier and SOC 2 Type II certification.
Cons
- Entry paid plan of $25 a month includes only 1,000 searches.
- U.S. Legal Shield starts at the Production plan.
- Focused on search results rather than full-page content scraping.
- Free plan throughput is limited to 50 searches per hour.
Features compared
| Exa | SerpApi | |
|---|---|---|
| Plans & pricing | ||
| Free tier | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Pricing model | Per usage | Monthly plans by search volume |
| Platforms & access | ||
| Web app | ✓ Yes | — |
| Integrations & extensibility | ||
| Public API | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| Security & compliance | ||
| SOC 2 | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| GDPR compliant | ✓ Yes | — |